THE GOVERNMENT: Old Quarrel

A familiar New Deal attack on
Business last week precipitated a quarrel over a familiar New Deal
paradox. The attack: FTC told the Monopoly Committee that the
basing-point price system makes the steel industry "a focal centre of
monopolistic infection which, if not eradicated, miy well cause the
death of free capitalistic industry in the U. S." The paradox: The
Administration's dual attitude toward Businessolive branch in one
hand, big stick in the other.

That paradox began with NRA, which was almost a perfect expression of
monopolistic economics. When it was abolished, the New Deal reversed
its field, has since been...